


The Normal School Crisis 



UM 




Springfield, Illinois 
1921 



TheTSformal School Crisis 



Dean O. L. ]VIANCHESTER 

Illinois State Normal School 



Letter on Same 

By 

FRANCIS G. BLAIR 

Superintendent of Public Instruction 




Issued by 

FRANCIS G. BLAIR 

Superintendent of Public Instruction 
Springfield, Illinois 

1921 



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SCHNEPP & BarneSj Printers 

Springfield, III. 

1921 

43993— 2M 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 


^.^.-^.•VEl 


FEB281921 


DOCUMENTS DIVISION 



INTRODUCTION. 

The founders of the Ilhnois system of pubHc instruction saw 
clearly the need of providing teacher-training institutions. A con- 
troversy arose as to whether certain funds should be used to estab- 
lish a state university or a state normal school. Those people who be- 
lieved that no school system could be a success without well trained 
teachers and that well trained teachers were impossible without a state 
established and maintained teacher-training institution won and the 
Illinois State Normal University was founded at Normal in 185 T. It 
would be impossible to estimate the far-reaching influence, of this in- 
stitution upon the quantity and quality of instruction in the schools 
of this commonwealth during the first fifty years of its existence. 

The state recognizing the value of the service of such an institu- 
tion established four other normal schools, and it was believed that hav- 
ing established them it had committed itself to their support. There 
has been no change whatever in the appreciation of the central place 
teacher training schools occupy in a common school system. There has 
been no change in the appreciation of the far-reaching effect they are 
having upon the standards of scholarship and education throughout 
the state. But for reasons rather difficult to discover, the state has 
not supported these institutions in such a way as to make them most 
serviceable to the commonwealth. To be sure, little complaint can be 
offered on the side of their physical equipment. Our five normal 
schools have, in the main, good buildings and good equipment. The 
lack of support has touched the spiritual side of these institutions. 

For many years it was considered such an honor to teach in the 
normal schools that men and women of the highest training accepted 
places in the faculty without much consideration of the question of 
salary. They were men and women devoted so thoroughly to their pro- 
fession that little thought was given to its economic side. Gradually 
it began to appear that these institutions were falling a victim to 
the very excellence of their work. They were training men and women 
to go out into the schools and teach with such rare excellence as 
to command something like a just and fair economic reward. Soon 
the very graduates of these normal schools, as high school principals 
and city superintendents, were receiving salaries in excess of the teach- 
ers in the institutions from which they graduated. Moreover the re- 
wards in industrial lines were becoming greater and the cost of main- 
taining one's self as a teacher in a normal school was mounting higher 
and higher each year. At last educational leaders of the state awoke to 
the fact that the normal schools were no longer attracting to their 
faculties the best men and women of the state and nation, and that 
their influence for good was being curtailed. Every attempt to seek 
out the cause and remove it led to the conclusion that the teachers 
in these normal schools were being underpaid — underpaid when com- 
pared with the services they render, underpaid when compared with 



the salaries paid to their graduates, underpaid when compared with 
the appreciating costs of everything they had to buy. 

With the discovery of this breakdown and its cause, has the state 
moved quickly to remove the cause? It has not. Of course, all sorts 
of explanations may be offered as to why it has not done so, but these 
explanations do not obscure the fact that for over a decade this 
decline in the teaching equipment of our normal schools has been 
going on. The normal school presidents and the boards in control of 
these schools, have seen more or less clearly the situation and have 
been presenting it to the legislative committees and state authorities. 
Now and then some added support has been secured, but all efforts 
seemed to fall short of convincing the state authorities that the exist- 
ing conditions were critical and demanded radical and far-reaching 
remedies. The paper prepared and presented by Dean O. L. Man- 
chester is the most effective and compelling presentation of this 
situation and its causes which has ever come to my attention. With 
a view of bringing it to the attention of those who are concerned in 
maintaining the highest standards in our teacher-training institutions, 
I am pubHshing it as a state document. 

January 25, 1921. Superintendent. 




THE NORMAL SCHOOL CRISIS 

O. L. Manchester 

(The Normal School Council having under consideration the 
question, How to Secure Adequate Support for the Normal Schools 
of Illinois?) 

Four years ago I tried to show this Council that the humiliation 
of the Illinois Normal School had begun twenty years before. It was 
no accident that in the eighties and in the nineties the professors in our 
normal schools were the educational leaders of Illinois. Two thousand 
dollars was not a high salary but it was more than was paid on the 
average to superintendents of our 42 largest cities, excepting Chicago, 
and as much as was paid to heads of departments at the University of 
Illinois. 

As one looks back today he wonders whether upon this salary 
question we normal school people were asleep during the twenty years 
preceding the outbreak of the European War. Slowly prices rose, 
until by 1913 they were 60 per cent higher than in 1896 and 40 per 
cent higher than the average level of the nineties. With the prices of 
commodities rose the salaries of public school teachers and of pro- 
fessors at the State University. Between 1897 and 1916 in three 
classes of our largest cities — excepting Chicago — salary increases 
averaged, for superintendents 85, 45, and 74 per cent respectively, and 
for high school principals, 82, 66, and 136 per cent, while at the Uni- 
versity of Illinois for heads of departments they more than doubled. 
During the same period for a week of service the money wage of the 
normal school professor increased 16 per cent. Perhaps nobody in- 
tended this humiliation of the normal teacher. A rise of three per 
cent a year in prices and in superintendents' salaries may have escaped 
notice. But while the normal school professor's salary in 1897 had 
exceeded the high school teacher's salary by 31 per cent and the 
superintendent's salary by 8 per cent, by 1916 the superintendent's 
pay was 30 per cent and the high school principal's pay 14 per cent 
above that of the professor. 

If the twenty years preceding the outbreak of the War form the 
first period of normal school degradation in Illinois, the briefer time 
since the outbreak completes a second period. 

Price rises became startling. Taking 1913 as a starting point and 
letting the prices of that year be represented by 100, "all commodities" 
culminated in 272 last May. This is the official figure of the Bureau 
of Labor based upon the prices of over three hundred commodities, 
each being given a weight in the reckoning corresponding to its im- 
portance in the trade of the country. Bradstreet's index was about 
$8.64 the middle of 1914 and reached $20.87 last February. Dun's 
figure was running about $120 in 1913 and May 1 of this year reached 
$263. The Annalist's index, which was 146 for 1914, touched 336 last 
June. Averaging the figures for the four authorities, we may say that 
prices culminated this year at a point nearly 2^ times their pre-war 
level. 





















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EXPLANATION OF CHARTS 

CHART I, Page 4 

This chart shows how the normal school professor's salary failed to rise 
as prices rose, while the salary of the superintendent of schools or that of 
the high school principal kept pace with the increase in prices. 

The result was that the normal teacher, who, from a salary standpoint, 
was in the lead in 1897, not only lost the leadership, but by 1916 had taken 
last place. 

1 2 3 

1897 Normal Professor Superintendent H. S. Prin. 

$2,000 $1,854 $1,523 

1916 Superintendent H. S. Prin. Normal Professor 

$3,016 $2,647 $2,321 

The price lines are those of the standard authorities. Salary computa- 
tions are based upon official sources. 

Evidently, any city of considerable size in Illinois could take for its 
superintendent or high school principal, so far as salary is concerned, the 
aver^age professor from any one of our normal schools. 



CHART !l, Page 6 

This chart shows what the average normal school professor has lost be- 
cause his salary did not rise during the last five years as the price index 
did (printed at the right). The total loss is $600 + $1,900 + $2,400 + $2,300 
-f $3,000 = $10,200. 



For retail prices the Bureau of Labor alone has attempted com- 
putations upon any considerable scale. We know that the prices of 
22 principal foodstuffs, weighted, for 45 cities, rose from 100, assumed 
for July, 1914, to 219 for July, 1920. We know that ten standard 
varieties of dry goods have sold in Chicago and in central Illinois 
cities this year at three or four times their pre-war prices. Our ex- 
periences testify that something of the same sort has been true in the 
case of shoes, clothing, house furnishings, coal, building materials, etc. 

A depreciated medium of exchange is a most terrible means of 
robbing a salaried class. This may occur without the sufferers reaHz- 
ing that it is taking place. So, perhaps, it was from 1896 to 1913. 
This has not been the case during the last five years. But how many 
of us can tell the extent of our losses? 

Let us take the case of a teacher who, we may suppose, received 
for the years 1916, '17, and '18 a salary of $2,500, who then got a 20 
per cent raise, receiving $3,000 for 1919 and also for 1920. Now what 
did he really receive in the aggregate for the last five years, what would 
he have received had he been paid as the rising cost of living demanded, 
and what was his total loss? We shall use first the Bureau of Labor 
indexes. 

Year Index Number Salary Received Salary Deserved Loss 

1913 100 $2,500 $2,500 

1916 124 2,500 3,100 $ 600 

1917 176 2,500 4,400 1,900 

1918 196 2,500 4,900 2,400 

1919 212 3,000 5,300 2.300 

1920 240 3,000 6,000 3,000 

Total received $13,500. Total deserved $23,700. Total loss 
$10,200. 

Dun's indexes for the same years are : 100, 123, 169, 190, 190, 
206. 

Deserved salaries for 5 years: $3,075, $4,225, $4,750, $4,750, 
$5,150. 

Total of deserved salaries : $21,950. Total loss $8,450. 

Bradstreet's indexes for the same year are: 100. 128, 170, 203, 
203, 205. 

And the deserved salaries for the last five years are thereby $3,200, 
$4,250, $5,075, $5,075, $5,125. 

Total of deserved salaries, $22,675. Making a total loss of $9,225. 

The cost of living indexes of the National Industrial Conference 
Board, based upon family budgets, and the most conservative estimates 
we have, are for the last five years : 108, 132, 152, 182, 200 ( ?), mak- 
ing the deserved salaries: $2,700, $3,300, $3,800, $4,550, $5,000. 
Total, $19,350. Loss, $5,850. 

We might average these four estimates and conclude that our 
teacher has probably "lost out" during these last five years to the ex- 
tent of $8,375. And he represents quite accurately any one of the 
best-paid professors in our Illinois normals. If any are inclined to 
smile at this argument, such should try answering it. 



8 

Quite as serious is the lot of our professor when compared with 
the fortunes of teachers at the State University, of high school prin- 
cipals, or of city superintendents. We shall consider the last-named 
only. The superintendents of schools in our 40 largest cities — exclud- 
ing Chicago — received in 1897-8 upon the average eight per cent less 
than did our typical professor, but by 1913 the superintendent was 
getting $2,721 a year, $3,000 in places over 15,000, while our professor 
received then for 39 weeks $2,321. Just how many thousands of 
dollars our normal school man has ''lost out" in comparison with the 
superintendent since 1897 we shall not attempt to figure, but beginning 
with 1913 the account stands as follows: 

1913-14 1914-15 1915-16 1916-17 1917-18 1918-19 1919-20 1920-21 
Superintendent $3,000 ?3,125 $3,294 $3,493 $3,507 $3,677 $4,302 $5,074 
Professor 2.321 2.321 2.321 2.321 2,321 2,321 2,767 2,767 



$ 679 $ 804 $ 973 $1,172 $1,186 $1,356 $1,535 $2,307 

Total loss $9,012 ; all because when prices went up the superin- 
tendent's salary went up while the professor's salary did not. 

It would seem that during this same period our professor has 
been losing out in comparison with nearly everybody. Not only must 
he doff his hat to the superintendent in any town of 8,000, or over, in 
Illinois, but the high school principal has him beaten. There is just 
one principal, I think, in cities from 15,000 up who receives as little 
as he. 

When I built my house in 1896 the best-paid carpenters on the 
job got $2.50 a day. I was receiving four times that. By 1913 Chi- 
cago bricklayers, wiremen, plasterers, and plumbers, were getting 
75 cents an hour; carpenters, cement finishers, painters, sheet-metal 
workers, 65 cents ; stone-cutters, 62.5, and structural iron workers, 
68 cents. The average was 69 cents an hour for the ten classes of 
artisans. Our head of a department was then getting roughly $60 a 
week. The artisan working 44 hours a week earned half as much as 
the professor did. Now the most regular rate for each of these ten 
artisans is $1.25 an hour. The artisan by working 53 hours a week 
can earn practically as much — $66.25 — as our department heads 
average ($66.70). 

In the Illinois Zinc Works at LaSalle'the rollers — mostly Germans 
and Poles — have been averaging $12 a day, or about $3,500 a year. 
This beats our professor. 

The passenger conductor on the C. and A. averages $250, the 
engineer $300, a month. Either beats our professor for the year. 

In 1913 the rates of the McLean County Medical Society were 
$2 for a day call, $4 for a night call, $1 for an office visit. Now their 
rates are just twice these figures. A Bloomington physician with a 
good practice clears $5,000-$6,000 a year. An average practice means 
$3,000-$4,000 clear. This beats our professor. 

The electrician, who has been fixing the clock in my office, gets 
$1.31 an hour; that is more than the I. S. N. U. lavishes upon its dean 
for his office work — $1.05 an hour. 



EXPLANATION OF CHARTS 



CHART III, Page 10 

This chart hows how the average of the best paid Heads of Departments 
at the Illinois State Normal University has "lost out" financially as com- 
pared with the average superintendent of schools in cities of 8,000 or over 
in Illinois, during the last eight years — all because the former's salary did 
not, during war times and after, rise with the price level, while that of the 
latter did. 

The total loss, as shown in the text, p. 8 was $9,012. 



CHARTS IV-IX, pp. 11-16, show how normal school teachers in Illinois 
have "lost out" as compared with almost everybody during the last five or 
six years. 

The wages of normal teachers have risen only a little over 20 per cent, 
while those of skilled labor have doubled, those of common labor more than 
doubled, and those of factory labor in ten principal industries been multi- 
plied by two and one-half. 

CHART IX shows the whole situation at a glance, with superintendents' 
salaries included (p. 16). 

The figures from which these charts are constructed are all taken from 
the most reliable sources — the Monthly Labor Review, New York oflBcial 
reports, publications of the National Industrial Conference Board, and the 
recently published monograph. Trends of School Costs, by Dr. W. Randolph 
Burgess, of the Educational Department of the Russel Sage Foundation. 

CHART VIII is from the last-named source. 



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17 

My commercial-traveler neighbor expects to clear $5,000-$G,000 
a year. My dentist friend sends his girl away to school and has a 
new auto every second year. Another neighbor of mine buys and 
sells land; he confessed to having "cleaned up" $15,000 last year. I 
told him his was a damnable business and that I wished I belonged to it. 

In ten principal lines of industry, according to the Industrial Con- 
ference Board, the wage increases from September 1914 to March, 
1920, were as follows in per cents : silk manufactories, 182 per cent ; 
woolen goods, 172 per cent; cotton goods, 172 per cent; leather goods, 
170 per cent; furniture, 167 per cent; metals, 110 per cent; printing 
and publishing, 96 per cent ; boots and shoes, 105 per cent. This is an 
average increase in hourly wages since 1914 of 151 per cent. 

In New York factories the increase within the last six years 
has been from 100 per cent to 221 per cent in earnings per worker. 
The figures are official. Massachusetts and Pennsylvania also publish 
statistics as to factory labor. Wages have doubled in these states 
within six years. The Bureau of Labor keeps records for over 700 
industrial establishments. From March, 1919 to March, 1920, one 
year, wages in them rose 23 per cent. 

The wages of the employees of the United States Steel Co., from 
1913 to 1919, rose as follows: blast furnace workers, 140 per cent; 
Bessemer converter workers, 99 per cent; open hearth workers, 133 
per cent ; plate mill workers, 134 per cent ; sheet mill workers, 111 per 
cent; blooming-mill workers, 118 per cent. These per cents average 
122>^. 

On top of earlier increases while the railroads were under private 
management, railroad employees since December, 1917, have received 
the following wage increases in per cents : supervisory forces, 74 ; 
clerical and station forces, 84^^ ; maintenance of way and unskilled 
labor, 883^ ; shop employees, 72 ; telegraphers, etc., 101 ; engine service 
employees, 76 ; train service employees, 84 ; stationary engineers and 
firemen, 120 ; signal department employees, 85. These per cents 
average 87. No doubt the wages of railroad employees have doubled 
since 1913. These rates affect nearly two million men. 

Nobody working around an Illinois coal mine can be paid less than 
$6.86 a day or in a mine $7.25 a day. Rates run up to $8.43 a day 
for shift leaders. Engineers get from $219 to $242 a month. 

The award of the Anthracite Coal Commission gives anthracite 
coal workers the following increases for April, 1920, as compared with 
rates for 1912, in per cents : 20 classes of inside workers, 132.8 per 
cent; 14 classes of outside workers, 167^ per cent; four classes of 
breaker workers, 1703/^ per cent. 

The farm hand who, if single, got $40-50 a month before the War 
now gets $50-65 ; the married man before the War got $45-$55 and 
now receives $60-70. These figures mean an average money increase 
of 25-30 per cent for the single and 28-33 per cent for the married 
man, in both cases the living being furnished, which is worth more 
than twice what it was before the War. The wage of casual labor — 
male and female — is at least twice its pre-war level. 



18 

It is safe to conclude that union labor rates and the wages of 
skilled labor generally have doubled since 1913 ; the wages of un- 
skilled labor have done considerably more than that. 

In 1913 the Illinois State Normal University paid six assistant 
professors an average salary of $1,640 ; now it pays 10 an average of 
$2,030. This is for 42 weeks. Here is a money increase of 24 per 
cent since 1913, and a weekly salary now of $48.33. A Chicago hod- 
carrier with his $1.00 an hour or a plasterer's assistant with his $1.06 
can beat our assistant professor and work less than 50 hours a week. 
Since 1913 the hod-carrier has received a wage increase of 150 per 
cent, the plasterer's assistant of 121 per cent; our assistant professor 
of 24 per cent. 

In 1913 at the I. S. N. U. 18 instructors averaged $1,384 a year. 

In 1920 at the I. S. N. U. 21 instructors averaged $1,666 a year, 
or $39.90 a week. 

This is a money increase of 20 per cent since 1913. 

This average per week — $39.90 — is just 2^ cents more than the 
most poorly paid labor in an Illinois coal mine receives for a week of 
5^ days. 

In 1913 at the I. S. N. U. 12 training teachers averaged $1,362 for 
42 weeks. In 1920 at the I. S. N. U. 12 training teachers averaged 
$1,608 for 42 weeks. 

Here is the lowest average salary and likewise the lowest rate of 
increase — 18 per cent ; 7 "standbys" got only 14 per cent. It is $38.28 
per week now. Yet the training teacher must be an expert in her 
line and must work long hours; and misfits here are fraught with 
serious consequences. . 

Instructors or assistants in three classes of our largest city high 
schools have within four years received increases of 67 per cent, 28.5 
per cent, 46 per cent, which is more than twice on the average what 
our assistants and instructors have gotten within seven years. Grade 
principals in the same three classes of cities have enjoyed increases 
within the same four-year period of 31, 46, and 55 per cent and grade 
teachers 853^, 59, and 64 per cent, compared with our training teachers' 
18 per cent within seven years. In cities of over 15,000, grade prin- 
cipals now average over $2,000 a year. Three of our women grad- 
uates last year took positions paying more than 37 of the 42 women of 
our faculty were receiving. 

Finally, the town of Normal — a place of 5,000 — pays the prin- 
cipal of its Community High School and the superintendent of its 
graded schools, $5,000, which is just what the great State of Illinois 
pays its normal school presidents. The La Salle Twp. High School 
pays $7,500 ; Kenilworth, $6,600 ; Joliet, $5,500. 

So we see where we are and how we came to be where we are. 
The whole situation was clear to us four years ago and we stated our 
case fully and clearly at that time. But those in authority said the 
country was facing war; there was no telling what expenses Illinois 
might incur ; prices were going up ; we must wait. So we got nothing. 



19 

We waited patriotically and with little complaint. Two years ago we 
asked for a 30-per cent increase but the experts of the finance depart- 
ment said prices were about to come down and that ten per cent would 
suffice. Governor Lowden listened carefully to your representatives 
and the ten per cent was raised to fifteen. We were forbidden to ap- 
proach the legislature and the budget went through without contest. 
The State tax rate was reduced. The treasurer's report upon its ap- 
pearance showed that there had been in the general fund in the treasury 
October 1, 1918, the sum of $13,609,211. 

And then it developed that in spite of the finance department's 
experts and the expert friends of these experts, prices were obstinate 
about coming down. They were higher for 1918 than for 1917, higher 
for 1919 than for 1918, and averaged higher for 1920 than 1919. Our 
losses in consequence I have attempted to indicate. 

And now we are told prices are already down, are fast approach- 
ing the pre-war level ; and wages everywhere are coming down. Let 
by-gones be by-gones. Let the dead past bury its dead. Soon all 
will be well. 

Now whether prices are already down or how far they are down 
depends upon what we mean by "down." Do we mean the level for 
the present year is below that of 1919 ? Or do we mean they are lower 
than a year ago? Or do we mean they are below the peak points 
reached sometime last spring? Or do we mean wholesale prices are 
down, or that retail prices and the cost of living are down ? 

Bradstreet's index for December 1 is $13.63, a fall of 34.6 per cent 
from a peak point of $20.87 for last February. Dun's index is now 
$211.6 a fall of 19.5 per cent from the peak point of $263 for last 
May. The Labor Bureau's average for November is 207, a fall from 
272, the peak point reached last May, of nearly 24 per cent. Average, 
26 per cent. 

Bradstreet's index is now 32 per cent below his index of a year 
ago ; Dun's index is 13 per cent below and the Labor Bureau's 10 per 
cent below the year-ago index. Average, 18 per cent. 

Bradstreet's average for 1919 was $18.66 ; for 1920, $18.81. Dun's 
average for 1919 was $231 ; for 1920, it was $248 ; the Labor Bureau's 
average for 1919 was 234 and for 1920 will be at least 240. In each 
case the 1920 level is the higher. 

According to Bradstreet wholesale prices are now 56 per cent 
above their level August 1, 1914. They are more than twice (2.07), 
according to the Labor Bureau, what they averaged for 1913. Dun's 
figure shows them 76 per cent above the pre-war level. 

Now, fine commercial indicator as Bradstreet's index may be, 
personally, in trying to determine cost-of-living changes I should dis- 
card it altogether. Averaging Dun's and the Labor Bureau's figures, 
we find then that the cost of living is now 91^ per cent above its 
pre-war (1913) level, judging from wholesale price reports. 

In times of rising or of falling prices, however, retail prices al- 
ways lag behind wholesale prices. Especially do the wholesale prices 
of raw materials fall faster than the retail prices of consumption goods 



20 

made therefrom. The retailer, holding out for his profit, refuses to 
mark his goods down. Moreover, labor-cost as well as material-cost 
figure in retail price, and wages lag behind prices when prices are 
falling. Thus, at present, wools, hides, raw cotton, corn are selling at 
not more than half their prices of a year ago; but there has been no 
such drop in men's suits, in shoes, in calico, or in corn flakes. It is 
not unnatural that at present raw wool is about half its price of a year 
ago, woolen goods at wholesale Yz their prices of a year ago, and 
woolen suits only "20 per cent off." 

How far retail prices are really down I may leave to you. Did you 
find things "down" when you did your Xmas shopping? Did you pay 
65 cents a pound for a turkey, 80 cents a quart for oysters, 90 cents 
a dozen for eggs, $9.00 a ton for coal, 10 cents for a pair of shoe- 
strings? Or a month's wages as a school-mistress for a new coat? 
The price crest was past early in the Spring, we had August sales in 
May everywhere, yet the Wall Street Journal, October 16, said, "As 
yet the consumer has received little benefit." Bradstreet thought the 
retail prices of foods went down 10 per cent from July through Oc- 
tober. The National Industrial Conference Board — than which we 
have no better authority on the cost of living — writes that the decrease 
in the cost of living from October 15 to November 15 was 2 per cent. 
And Babson in his letter of December 21 says that retail prices are 
not down as yet more than 10-15 per cent from their high point last 
spring. I believe this tallies with our experiences. "Twenty per cent 
off," "Thirty off — Now will you come in and buy?" Yes, but "off" 
what? Why, off the 287 in which foods culminated last May. Off the 
356 for cloths and clothing in March. Off the 363 for house furnish- 
ings last August. Off the 272 of last May for "all commodities." And 
30 per cent off prices at 272 leaves "all commodities" still 90 per cent 
above their pre-war level. No wonder some conclude that the only 
place to find something cheap is in the newspapers. 

But what of the future ? 

It was twenty years after the Civil War before prices settled 
back to their pre-war level, and certain forces and conditions had their 
effects then that cannot be expected to operate now. Within that 20- 
year period our transportation system expanded as never before, costs 
of production in manufacturing fell marvelously, the production of 
cereals doubled. Immigration was unrestricted, labor was almost un- 
organized, and our unit of values changed from a greenback to a gold 
dollar or its equivalent. Yet prices fell on the average only five per 
cent a year. 

Today there remain no great areas of agricultural land to come 
into cultivation, railway building is at a standstill, the limit of eco- 
nomies in manufacturing seems to have been reached, labor is organ- 
ized for a fight, immigration is to be restricted or stopped, and we 
have an elastic currency system. Moreover, we shall erect tariff bar- 
riers against imports. 

The equation of exchange is M V + M' V'= P T. 

The level of prices can come down from a decrease in the circula- 
tion of money or from a fall in bank deposits subject to check, i. e., 



21 

in a reduction in M or M'. With our federal reserve banking system 
in full operation there might be some question as to why prices should 
come down at all. May we not be on a new and permanently higher 
price level ? 

Our per capita circulation for the past two months, October 1, 
$58.64, and $59.48 November 1, has been higher than ever before in 
our history, and it shows no signs of a fall. Nor has there been any 
fall in bank deposits subject to check. The cry against contraction 
will stop any considerable reduction in the currency, or any serious 
curtailment of loans to legitimate business ; and deposits are but a re- 
flection of loans. No administration, no political party will care to 
be responsible for the business crisis that would follow contraction. It 
is economically undesirable and politically impossible. 

Lower prices might come from an expansion in trade — an increase 
in T. But all the indications are of a diminishing trade, which will 
tend to keep prices up. 

The only thing that remains to pull prices down is a decreasing 
V or V, i. e., a lessened velocity of circulation of money or of bank 
deposits. If people do not spend so freely, if the turn-over of their 
cash or deposits is less often, then prices may fall. And this is what 
has brought prices down the last few months. People stopped buying. 
The very people who bought furiously when prices were rising and 
they thought they were going higher, refused to buy at the first inti- 
mation that prices were to be lower. In vain sale after sale was staged 
by the merchant who had to sell to pay his debts, and for whom busi- 
ness had become unprofitable now that the thitherto lagging interest 
rate and wage rate had overtaken prices in their rise. 

But after all V and V depend upon human nature. They vary 
widely among peoples, between country folks and city folks, among 
individuals. But the arc of their oscilation for any particular people 
as a whole is a narrow one. For 20 years before 1916, when prices 
first took their upward shoot, V's variation had averaged not over one- 
half of one per cent and V" not over 2^ per cent per year. They 
changed little during the War. If the fall of prices depends upon V 
and V' we cannot expect a rapid reduction in the cost of living; the 
arc of their oscilation is too short. Americans have been spenders too 
long to be made savers over night. A dollar burns a hole in an Amer- 
ican pocket. 

Losses from price reductions so far have come out of employer's 
profits and out of the sellers of raw materials already produced. But 
so soon as bed-rock is reached in these directions, and further reduc- 
tions must come out of wages or out of the prices for materials and 
goods not yet produced, then things will move very slowly. The 
Mechanics and Metals National Bank of New York thinks the worst 
is past and that altered credit and monetary conditions have left prices 
on a permanently higher basis. 

The only reputable authority in the United States who makes a 
business of forcasting prices, Roger Babson, has predicted that the 
cost of living will be from fifteen to twenty per cent lower for 1921 



22 

than it has been for 1920. And this seems reasonable if after all the 
fuss and fury of the last ten months the cost of living is not down 
more than ten to fifteen per cent from its peak point of last spring. At 
any rate, it is the best and almost the only really expert and scientific 
estimate we have. After 1921 might follow a five per cent annual 
subsidence for a year or two. 

In view of this prospect, are we, the normal school teachers of 
Illinois, entitled to a fifty per cent increase for the coming biennium? 

Dun's index figure for 1920 is 206. The index of the Labor 
Bureau will be at least 240. The average of these two is 223. Since 
1913 we have received one general increase of fifteen per cent and a 
few scattered increases that may bring the total to 120. Fifty per cent on 
top of this will mean that we shall get 80 per cent more in money than 
in 1913. Now if this last year's living cost of 223 is to come down 
17 yz per cent — taking the average of Babson's 15 and 20 — then the 
cost of living index for next year will be 184. A year later it might 
be 179. In other words, in spite of our starving time of the past five 
years, we shall be getting less next year and less per year for the 
biennium than we received in real wages in 1913. It would seem that 
the State could afford to treat us squarely — even liberally — for once. 
Yet fifty per cent would mean a wage restoration, not a wage increase 
for us. 

But would not this fifty per cent increase be treating us too liber- 
ally in comparison with other labor whose wages are now on the de- 
cline ? 

If we may average the figures we have here for New York fac- 
tories, 221, and for wages in ten principal industries, 251, we have 236 
as an index figure for factory wages in 1920. The reduction being 
made in textile mills of the East is 22^ per cent, and this is higher 
than the average reductions that are being made the country over. 
This 22^ per cent off, or 40 per cent off the war-time gain, will leave 
factory labor at 183 per cent of its pre-war wages. 

Ordinary labor is getting now 228 per cent of its pre-war earnings 
in money. Cut this 20 per cent or take ^ off the war-time gain and 
we leave it with 183 per cent of its former rates. Skilled labor has 
not fared quite so well in increases during the war. Its wage stands 
now at just about twice what it was in 1913. Cut this 10 per cent — 
give the bricklayer, for example, $1.12^/2 an hour instead of $1.25 — 
and skilled labor will get in money 80 per cent more than its pre-war 
wages, and will have lost 20 per cent of its war-time gain. 

Public school teachers have not got even yet the full measure of 
increases due them. For example, superintendent's salaries should 
come up between five and ten per cent. City teachers generally from 
1913-14 to 1919-20 averaged an increase of 61 per cent. By now it is 
probably 80 per cent. And salaried labor generally that has not yet 
been the recipient of so much as an 80 per cent raise, has something 
coming to it. 

And so readjustment or reconstruction will have been accomplish- 
ed with prices, wages, and salaries about 80 per cent higher in money 



23 









CHART X. For explanation see page 2S 




, 


|WAR-TIME PRICES & NORMAL- SCHOOL SALARIES. 


1913 


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-- 


IN MONEY. PRICES. 

—REAL WAGES OF NORMAL ^l^™"^"- "*DU8TRIAL BOARD - 

SCHOOL TEACHERS. COST OF LIVING. 

—DUNS INDEX OF PRICES . prIceI""^^"'^ '"°^* °^ 


1 



24 

than they were in pre-war times. Even this will mean that prices 
will have fallen from the Labor Bureau's peak point of 272 to 180, 
a drop of 92 points. If there had been no war at all prices for 1921 
would have been about 130. Such a reconstruction will be immeasur- 
able easier than any return to a pre-war level, and it will be with 
justice to all so far as the future is concerned. But even thus we 
normal teachers should be writing off our disastrous losses of the past 
five years. 

Is it not to be feared, however, that if we are given this fifty per 
cent increase, we shall be getting more than we are entitled to in com- 
parison with what other normal teachers are receiving in other states? 

In Wisconsin for heads of departments the maximum is, after 8 
years of service, $4,000, though so high as $4,800 may be paid in spe- 
cial cases. We shall use the $4,000. In Missouri the maximum, at 
Warrensburg, is $3,500, and at Kirksville $3,660, which average $3,580. 
At Terre Haute the maximum is $3,960 ; and it is the same at Cedar 
Falls, where 11 heads now receive it. In Michigan at Ypsilanti and 
at Kalamazoo it is $5,000 ; 11 people are now receiving that at Kala- 
mazoo. In Ohio, at Kent and Oxford, the maximum is $3,600. At 
Albany, Teachers' College, it is $4,500. The average maximum then, 
counting each state once, for these seven states that include all our 
border states to the north, west, and east, with Ohio and New York 
added, for a full professor or head of a department is $4,097. Now 
if we get our 50 per cent and our head of a department is given $4,500 
as a maximum, and the teachers in normals in these various states get 
10 per cent for the coming biennium then our maximum will be just 
about the average of their maximums. And we should rank little 
better as to other classes of teachers — assistant professors, instructors, 
and training school critics. In other words we shall be even then with 
our 50 per cent advance, as to salaries, "just averaged," being behind 
Michigan and New York, on a par with Iowa, Wisconsin, and Indiana, 
and ahead of Missouri, and perhaps Ohio. But what normals in other 
states are asking will average much more than 10 per cent. Minnesota 
normals want a 60 per cent increase, Cedar Falls 20 per cent, etc. 
There is a considerable advantage for the state that leads the pro- 
cession. It can attract the best teachers from the normals of other 
states. Would that Illinois might lead for once ! 

The issue today is between the 30 per cent offered by the budget 
committee and the 50 per cent requested by the Board. Now what 
burden would this difference of 20 per cent impose upon the taxpayer ? 

The normal schools of Illinois have been getting about $500,000 
a year for salaries. Twenty per cent of $500,000 is $100,000. The 
assessed value of the property of Illinois is over four billions. One 
per cent in the tax rate means $400,000 of revenue, and to get $100,000 
we need one-fourth of one cent in the tax rate. The farmer in central 
Illinois with 320 acres of land assessed at $50 an acre and with per- 
sonalty to one-fourth the value of his realty, is assessed for $20,000. 
And this one-fourth cent in the tax rate would cost him 50 cents in 
taxes. The eleven biggest retail stores in Bloomington have an average 
assessed valuation of $21,336, and that would mean that this one-fourth 



25 

of one cent would cost them on the average 53 cents. It would be 
1/2504 of the total Bloomington rate of $6.26. We take it we normal 
school teachers have already re-imbursed both farmers and merchants 
for this burden, in the prices we have been paying them for four or 
five years. Of course, I do not believe that this $100,000 would make 
any diflference in the tax rate, since there are nearly sixteen millions 
of dollars in the revenue fund of the treasury now. ^^loreover, it is 
an error to think that the people of Illinois wish the schools degraded 
for lack of revenue — normal schools included. Wherever they have 
had a chance at the tax rate the people have not hesitated to raise 
it to provide adequate revenue for teachers' salaries. 

The real question at this juncture is : 

SHALL THE DEGRADATION OF THE NORMAL 
SCHOOL IN ILLINOIS BE MADE PERMANENT? 

It matters little whether prices stay up or go down. After a 
certain minimum of necessaries is assured, it is not what we get ab- 
solutely but what we get relatively, that counts. Not what prices may 
do but what they have already done spells discomfiture for us. 

In the new tax rate the University of Illinois is assured six and 
two-thirds cents, which means over two and a half millions a year. 
Considerable of this, no doubt, will go for salary increase. A fifty 
per cent increase would hardly put us on a par with the University 
teachers now. So the case seems hopeless. They will outclass us 
permanently. Yet there is no reason why sons and daughters securing 
a cultural education or preparing for private business, should at the 
expense of the State be taught by more efficient teachers than sons 
and daughters of a humbler class, preparing for public service in the 
schools of Illinois. 

Our professor was once in the race with the best-paid superintend- 
ents in Illinois. Fifty per cent increase will still leave him with $1,000 
a year below the median for superintendents in cities of 25,000 or over, 
and just on a level with the average superintendent in places from 
8,000 up. Now nobody believes the salaries of public school super- 
intendents, high school principals and assistants, and grade school 
principals, are going down, no matter what prices do. The advent 
in force of the community or township high school, with its abundant 
resources, is sufficient to guarantee that. \\'ith anything less than 
fifty per cent our relative discomfiture here will remain, even if prices 
sink to a pre-war level. 

We have seen that the artisan once got one-fourth what our pro- 
fessor did ; that before the War he was getting one-half as much, and 
that at present it is a close race between them. Now, the rates of 
skilled union labor are not going to fall much, no matter what prices 
do. In fact, in Chicago the present buildings trades agreement on 
the basis of $1.25 an hour runs until Alay 1st, 1923. In Bloomington, 
our bricklayer, whom we have used for purpose of illustration, who 
is now receiving $1.25 an hour, regardless of our reconstruction plan 
and its award of $1.12^^, announces that after January 1st he must 
have $1.50 an hour. Are we to have lost out relatively and per- 
manently here too? Is an education to cease to pay? 



26 



CHART XL For explanation see page 28 



EAST AURORA 

WEST AURORA 

BLOOMINGTON 

DANVILLE 

DECATUR 

EAST ST. LOUIS 

ELGIN 

JOLIET 

PEORIA 

QUINCY 

ROCKFORD 

SPRINGFIELD 

NORMAL PROFESSOR 

ALTON 

BELLEVILLE 

EVANSTON 

FREEPORT 

GALESBURG 

JACKSONVILLE 

MOLIIfE 

OAK PARK 

ROCK ISLAND 

WAUKE6AN 



NORMAL PROFESSOR 



BLUE ISLAND 

CAIRO 

CANTON 

CENTRALIA 

CHAMPAIGN 

CHICAGO HEIGHTS 

CICERO 

DE KALB 

GRANITE CITY 

KANKAKEE 

KEWANEE 

U SALLE 

LINCOLN 

MATTOON 

MAYWOOD 

MONMOUTH 

MT. VERNON 

OTTAWA 

PCKIN 

STREATOR 

URBANA 

NORMAL PROFESSOR 




tSOOO S60O0 S7000 



27 

Not upon what prices do but upon what the legislature does de- 
pends the future of the normal school system in Illinois. Let prices 
do what they will. Salaries in our normals not commensurate with 
those paid in other normal schools or to public school teachers, mean 
an extensive individual strike and poor stuff employed to take the 
places of the strikers. Students, especially normal school students, 
know when they are getting good or poor instruction. They will not 
go or stay where teaching is poorer than in the high schools whence 
they came. This is a time of stress for the normal school anyway. 
If to the other difficulties naturally inherent in the present situation 
is to be added the obstacle of meagre support, may not the Illinois 
normals as well board up their doors and surrender their function to 
the high school training classes? Why should would-be teachers go 
away from home for inferior instruction? 

Yet the Illinois normal never had the chance that lies before it 
today. People are awake educationally. Not only from country and 
city elementary schools comes the clear call for really expert teachers, 
but from our new township and community high schools is a demand 
for pedagogically trained secondary teachers. And these new schools 
can pay almost any price. They are revolutionizing the salary schedule 
in Illinois. But it is the decree of fate that the institution that does 
not live up to its opportunities, loses even the prestige that it has. 
We are at the parting of the ways. 

No faithful workman ever ought to have to ask for what is clearly 
his due. Much less should teachers, who are not expected to organize, 
to bargain collectively, or to strike, to whose calling attaches a certain 
dignity — much less should they have to beg repeatedly for what is 
simply justice. Such a necessity is beyond measure humiliating. If 
it were not for my family's sake I would black boots before I would 
do it. I understand that Governor Lowden admits that we should 
have had 30 per cent two years ago. Now if we should have had, it is 
the simplest justice that we be given, as back pay over-due, for the 
months of the biennium already past, the difference between 30 and 
15 per cent, now. It is a strange argument indeed, that because we 
have been refused justice so long, it should be denied us permanently. 
And for the remainder of the current biennium this same per cent 
should be provided for by legislative enactment or otherwise. Thus 
would be restored to our professor less than one-ninth, as we have 
seen, what his loss has been for the last five years. 

As for the coming biennium, normal school salaries in Illinois 
should be at least fifty per cent higher. Fifty per cent would be but 
a tardy restoration of a one-time wage. Sixty per cent would put us 
abreast with our best competitors. If we — the present occupants — are 
not worth so much money, then for the sake of the children and of 
the future citizenship of the State, let those in authority turn us out 
and find teachers who are. 

But will the representatives of the People of Illinois refuse per- 
manently to give to the State's School System at large the measure of 
support that this same people, whom they represent, has already gen- 
erally and generously accorded the schools in their local democracies 
at home ? 



28 



EXPLANATION OF CHARTS 



CHART X, Page 23 

This cnart shows for each year the real wage of the normal school 
teacher, the same being found by dividing his money wage by the average 
of the price or cost of living indexes. DURING THE PAST THREE YEARS 
THE NORMAL TEACHER HAS RECEIVED LESS THAN SIXTY PER 
CENT OF HIS PRE-WAR WAGE. IS FIFTY PER CENT INCREASE TOO 
MUCH? 



CHART XI, Page 26 

This chart makes three classes of Illinois cities: those that by the 
census of 1910 had a population of over 25,000, excepting Chicago; those 
between 15,000 and 25,000; and those of from 8,000 to 15,000. 

The normal school 'professor, who, a generation ago, from a salary stand- 
point, was ahead of or on a par with all but six of these JfS superintendents, 
is now behind all but one. This is because the normal teacher's salary did 
not rise as prices did, especially since 1914. 

Even with a fifty per cent increase the normal school professor will still 
be behind all the superintendents of Class I, behind six of the ten of Class 
II, and behind ten of the twenty-one of Class III. 

In 1897 the normal professor was ahead of all high school principals 
but two or three. 

The high school principals of these 43 cities now average $3,814 a year. 
Forty-nine township and community high schools in Illinois pay their prin- 
cipals now an average of $3,885. 

With a 50 per cent increase the normal school professor would average 
about $3,600 for 36 weeks. 

IS FIFTY PER CENT TOO MUCH? 



29 



LETTER ON NORMAL SCHOOL SALARY SITUATION. 

December 1, 1920. 

To Director of Finance and 
Chairman of the Budget Committee, 
Capitol Building, Springfield. 

Dear Sir : 

At the recent meeting of the Normal School Board a recommenda- 
tion for a 50 per cent increase in the legislative askings for salaries 
and wages for teachers in the normal schools, was considered and re- 
affirmed. You appeared before the Board. After some discussion -of 
the question, you asked that the Board present to you facts and argu- 
ments in support of the Board's recommendation. The Board appoint- 
ed Francis W. Shepardson and myself to prepare and furnish you with 
the statement. 

One of the arguments in favor of the 50 per cent increase in the 
salaries of normal school teachers over the budget for 1914, was that 
the salaries of public school teachers had increased greatly within the 
last 4 or 5 years ; in fact, the high school boards were able to pay much 
higher salaries for their teachers than the normal schools are paying. 

I am presenting herewith data to show: First, the increase in 
amounts expended for teachers' salaries and wages from 1914 to 
1919 ; second, the ranking of Illinois with the other states of the Union, 
based upon the amount of money expended for public education; 
third, the academic and professional — or lack of — qualification of the 
present teaching force of Illinois ; and fourth, conclusions and recom- 
mendations, based upon or growing out of these facts. As the question 
of an increase in the state distributive school fund is under considera- 
tion by you, some of the matter here presented is intended to bear 
directly upon that point as well as on the normal school salary question. 

1. Exhibit "A," enclosed herewith, prepared by the statistical 
clerk of this office, shows the amount earned by public school teachers 
in Illinois for 

the year ending June 30, 1914, was $21,781,221.22 

the year ending June 30, 1919, was 29,684,882.69 

a gain in dollars of 7,903,661.47 

a gain of 36% 

This gain has been made mainly during the year ending June 30, 
1919. The data for 1920 has not yet been tabulated for the entire 
state. The statistical clerk has, however, tabulated the data for ten 
typical counties covering the increase in salaries from July 1, 1914 



30 

to June 30, 1920. This shows an increase of 77 per cent. The sta- 
tistical clerk assures me that with Chicago included, he believes that 
the percentage will go higher than 77. An increase of 77 per cent in 
that period is a large increase compared with the 15 per cent which 
the normal school teachers have received during that time, but, meas- 
ured in the price of commodities which teachers must buy, they are 
receiving less in 1920 than they did in 1914. 

NOTE — Since this article was written, data for 101 counties have 
been received and tabulated. This shows an increase of the amount 
paid teachers in 1920 over the amount in 1914 of $17,615,731, or 81 
per cent. But the number of teaching positions in 1914 in these 101 
counties was 31,432 and in 1920, 36,199, or a gain of 4,767. This 
shows an average annual salary in 1914 of $687 and in 1920 of $1,083, 
a gain of 57.6 per cent. 

2. Every session of the general assembly, those who seek larger 
and more adequate revenues for public education are told that we are 
taxing the wealth of Illinois for public school purposes to the limit, 
and that any considerable increase in the state distributive fund or in 
the authority given to local boards to increase their rates will unsettle 
property values and cause resentment on the part of taxpayers. At 
times the impression is created that Illinois is expending abnormal 
amounts on her public schools. What are the facts? 

While the increase of 77 per cent in the salaries of public school 
teachers from 1914 to 1920 may seem generous, yet with all this in- 
crease Illinois, in the amount of money expended upon public educa- 
tion, falls far below its rank in wealth, manufacturing and agriculture 
among the other states. In the Statistical Report of the United States, 
published by the Department of Commerce in 1918, Illinois is ranked 
second in wealth. New York alone standing ahead of it; in capital 
invested in manufactories it ranks third, following New York and 
Pennsylvania, whereas, exhibit "B," furnished herewith, sets forth 
as the results of an analytic study of the state school systems of this 
country (by Leonard P. Ay res, for the Russell Sage Foundation) that 
Illinois ranked 2/th in the average expenditure per child in average 
attendance of the public schools of the state during the year ending 
June 30, 1918, and in average expenditure per child of school age 
(5 yrs. to 19 yrs.) for the same year Illinois ranked 24th. As a check 
upon this investigation by Mr. Ayres, exhibit "B" also shows the rank- 
ing of Illinois, as made by the National Commissioner of Education, 
in expenditures for public education in the years ending June 30, 
1912 and 1914. These data show that in 1914 Illinois ranked 23rd in 
amount expended per capita of total population, 21st in amount ex- 
pended per capita of children five to nineteen years of age. It is 
further shown that while in 1912 Illinois ranked 9th in per capita 
estimated wealth, she ranked 34th in the amount expended per each 
$100 of wealth for public education. The matter presented in exhibit 
*'B" shows clearly that Illinois is not being taxed excessively for the 
support of its public school system in comparison with other states 
of the Union, and that there will have to be a number of increases in 
the state distributive fund in the rates allowed to local boards of 



31 

education before Illinois takes the educational rank which its wealth, 
the extent of its industrial and agricultural pursuits, as well as the 
character of its people, demand. 

3. Exhibit "C," furnished herewith, is an anaysis of the academic 
and professional training of the teaching force of Illinois for the year 
ending June 30, 1919. This shows that 4.4 per cent of the teaching 
force have never attended school above the elementary grades ; that 
8.9 per cent have never finished a high school course ; that 36.7 per cent 
have not gone beyond the 4 year high school; that 63.5 per cent have 
not gone as far as graduation from a normal school or a college. While 
the war has helped somewhat to create this discreditable situation, 
Illinois has always ranked low in this respect. What are the causes? 

First, the legal standards of qualification are too low. Every at- 
tempt to lift these standards has been opposed by certain persons who 
insist that it is well-nigh impossible to secure teachers enough to sup- 
ply the schools even with standards as low as they are. While we 
have lifted the requirements for nurses, veterinary surgeons, dentists, 
doctors, public accountants, lawyers and others, we have been unable 
to lift the standard of qualification for teachers to a corresponding 
extent. 

Second, some are disposed to feel that the normal schools are 
somewhat responsible for the lack of a sufficient number of well trained 
teachers. In an indirect way this is true. But so long as teachers 
without normal school training can secure positions to teach and 
salaries almost as large as those paid to normal school graduates, the 
blame can not be laid directly upon the normal schools. 

Third, the main cause is the lack of salaries which will attract 
the best young men and the best young women into the teaching busi- 
ness and lead them to make the necessary preparation to do the work 
well. Until Illinois is willing to ofifer an adequate wage to the teacher 
we can not expect young men and young women to spend from 2 to 
4 years in the normal schools in preparation for their work. 

Fourth. Conclusions and Recommendations. 1. Other states 
like Pennsylvania and New York, having their attention drawn to the 
critical condition revealed by the war, have appropriated many addi- 
tional millions of dollars for an increase of teachers' salaries. Illinois 
at the last session of the general assembly increased the state distrib- 
utive fund from 4 millions to 6 millions of dollars annually. To put 
Illinois where it should be, this distributive fund should not be less 
than 25 per cent of the total amount expended for public education. 
This would require an appropriation of approximately 15 millions 
of dollars annually for the next biennium. Nothing less than 10 mil- 
lions of dollars annually should be considered at the next session of 
the general assembly. Further, while the last general assembly enacted 
some very helpful legislation in giving the local boards of education 
larger taxing powers, there still remains a certain group of our larger 
cities which needs additional revenue legislation. The boards of edu- 
cation in such cities as Rockford, Freeport, Aurora, Quincy, Bloom- 
ington, Danville, Springfield, East St. Louis, Cairo, and others, should 
be allowed, upon an affirmative vote of the people in each district, to 



32 

levy a separate tax for high school purposes. This would place them 
on an equal footing with those districts which now are organized under 
the community or township high school plan. The increase of 4 
millions of dollars annually in the state distributive fund and the in- 
crease that would come in these large cities would add to the school 
revenues perhaps 20 millions of dollars annually and would provide 
such salaries as would make possible higher standards of qualifications 
for teachers. These higher standards would fill our normal schools 
with thousands of these teachers in preparation and in the end would 
give Illinois an adequately trained teaching force. 

2. But with no increase whatever in our standards of preparation 
or attendance the normal schools should have the 50 per cent increase 
in their salary budget, in order to keep the high schools from taking 
their teachers away. It is discreditable to any state system of educa- 
tion to have the normal school teachers paid lower wages than the 
teachers whom they prepare are getting in the common schools. How- 
ever, if this enlarged program goes through the legislature, a much 
greater demand will be made upon our normal schools ; they will have 
to increase the size of their facilities and pay a wage that will attract 
and hold men and women who are thoroughly prepared to do the im- 
portant work of preparing the teachers of a commonwealth. In order 
to transform our untrained teaching force into a trained teaching force 
in the next ten years, our normal schools should turn out not less than 
3,000 graduates annually. If Illinois is to do for its children what it 
should do and take a rank corresponding to its rank in wealth, manu- 
facturing and agriculture, it must make large increases in the appro- 
priations for its normal schools and common schools. 

I hope you will approve the increase of 50 per cent in the salary 
budget of the normal schools and the increase of 4 millions of dollars 
annually in the state distributive fund. 
Yours sincerely, 

F. G. Blair, 
Superintendent. 

EXHIBIT "A." 

The following statement shows for Illinois the total 

amount earned by public school teachers in 1914 $21,781,221.22 

in 1919 29,684,882.69 

Gain 7,903,661.47 

Gain per cent 36 

Data for 1920 not yet tabulated for entire state. 

By a study and comparison of a group of ten representative coun- 
ties, namely : Boone, Adams, Sangamon, Carroll, Champaign, Clark, 
Douglas, St. Clair, Brown, and Bond, there was an increase of 29^ 
per cent in total paid teachers in 1920 over the amount paid in 1919. 
I think it conservative to estimate an increase in the whole state of 30 
per cent. 

If so, the total amount in 1920 was $38,590,347 

If so, gain since 1914 was 16,809,126 

If so, gain per cent since 1914 was 77 



33 

EXHIBIT "B." 

The following data shows the ranking of the State of Illinois with 
the other states of the Union as determined by money expended on 
public education : 

In a publication recently prepared by Leonard P. Ayres for the 
Russell Sage Foundation, entitled *'An Index Number for State 
School Systems," you will find 

1. Page 49, Table showing Illinois ranked 27th on Average Ex- 
penditure per child in average attendance in school year 1917-1918. 
The following states outrank Illinois ; Ariz., Cal., Colo., Conn., Idaho, 
Iowa, Kans., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., Neb., Nev., N. D., N. H., 
N. I., N. M., N. Y., Ohio, Ore., Penn., R. I., S. D., Utah, Wash, and 
^Vyo. 

2. Page 49, Table showing Illinois ranked 24th in Average Ex- 
penditure per child of school age (5 to 19) in year 1917-18. The fol- 
lowing states outrank Illinois : Ariz., Cal., Colo., Conn., Idaho, Ind., 
Iowa, Kans., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., Neb., Nev., N. D., N. J., 
N. Y., Ohio, Ore., S. D., Utah, Wash, and Wyo. 

In the Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education for the 
year 1913-14, I find the following information: 

1. Illinois ranked 23rd on Amount Expended per capita of total 
population. These states rank above Illinois: Utah, Idaho, CaHf., 
N. D., Mont., Ariz., Wash., Minn., N. J., Neb., Ore., Iowa, Colo., Ind., 
Mass., Ohio, S. D., Kans., Wyo., Conn., Nev., N. Y. 

2. Illinois ranked 21st on Amount Expended per capita of chil- 
dren 5 to ip years of age. These states outrank Illinois: Calif., 
Mont., Nev., Wash., Ariz., Utah, Ore., N. J., N. D., Idaho, W>o., 
Mass., Colo., Minn., Neb., Ohio, Conn., N. Y., Ind., Iowa. 

3. The same report shows that, while in 1912 Illinois ranked 9th 
in per capita estimated luealth, she ranked ^4tJi on amount expended 
for each $ioo of zvealth, and. 

While on the amount expended on each $ioo of zvealth Illinois 
ranked 34th, on amount expended on each $ioo assessed valuation, 
she ranked 8th. This shows how widely the assessed value of prop- 
erty differs from the estimated wealth in the several states of the 
Union. 



34 

EXHIBIT "C." 

This statement shows the qualifications of the teachers occupy- 
ing the 35,023 teaching positions in Illinois during the school year 
1918-19. 

Percent 

of Total 

Qualifications. Number, number. 

No. having attended no school above elementary 1,520 4.4 

No. having attended but not graduates of High school 1,641 4.5 

No. graduates of 4 year high school only 9,724 27.8 

No. having attended but not graduates of state nor- 
mal school 6,670 19.1 

No. having attended but not graduates of college. . . . 2,707 7.7 

Total not graduates of normal school or college 22,262 63.5 

No. graduates of state normal school only 7,369 21.1 

No. graduates of college only 4,097 11.7 

No. graduates of college and state normal school. . . . 1,295 3.7 

Total graduates of normal school or college 12,761 36.5 



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